Man Charged in Staten Island Crime Spree Pleads Not Guilty

Tyrell Brown, boarding a Correction Department bus after his arraignment Friday, is accused of two killings. One victim was Kuwan Collins.Credit
Bryan R. Smith for The New York Times

A man accused in a crime spree that included two unrelated murders only 15 minutes apart was ordered held without bail on Friday after he entered a plea of not guilty in State Supreme Court on Staten Island.

The suspect, Tyrell Brown, 25, appeared nonchalant at the proceeding, occasionally yawning as some of the murder victims’ relatives sat behind him, crying.

An assistant district attorney, Anthony Catalano, described the rampage as “the most violent murder and robbery spree on Staten Island in recent memory.”

The charges covered seven crimes, including two homicides, two robberies and a carjacking, over the course of three days. Mr. Brown will be kept in custody at least until his next court date on Monday, and a grand jury notice was filed in the case.

Photo

His sister Talia Collins, left, and his fiancée, Shirley Freeman, are shown after the hearing.Credit
Bryan R. Smith for The New York Times

“This defendant, in his actions and history, has exhibited a complete callousness and disregard for human life,” Mr. Catalano said, pointing to the suspect’s criminal history.

Mr. Brown, known to law enforcement authorities on Staten Island as “Hell Rell,” was released from prison two months ago after serving a five-year sentence for robbery; a parole board hearing made mention of a record that dates to 2005 and included “felonies and misdemeanors, prior violence and prior prison and failure at prior community supervision.”

The suspect’s lawyer, Mark J. Fonte, denied all charges on behalf of his client.

The criminal complaint against Mr. Brown laid out a slightly revised account of the spree. The authorities had said the crimes began when Mr. Brown robbed and killed Kuwan Collins, 40, on Britton Avenue. But the complaint stated that Mr. Collins’s death occurred at 5:08 a.m., about 15 minutes after Devin Powell, 23, was robbed and killed on Arlington Place.

“I’m happy, but it’s not relief, though,” Ms. Freeman said. “Our child still won’t grow up with a father.”

“I’m just upset because he was the last person with him,” she added, referring to Mr. Brown, “and it should’ve been me.”

A version of this article appears in print on July 12, 2014, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Man Pleads Not Guilty To Killing 2 In S.I. Spree . Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe